In fact your engine is potentially capable of much more and you can unleash its hidden power with either a performance programmer, chip, or module designed to boost performance of your vehicle. The matter is that your vehicle's computer, known as ECU, ECM, or PCM, is calibrated at the factory with settings that are intended for the average driver. There's been times when we've swapped out pieces that have broken pretty quickly and kept the damage pretty minimal.”ĪJ's background in other sports helped fueled his rapid rise in rally racing.Ī gifted athlete, he also understood at a young age that coaches knew more than he did and became a sponge for information, always trying his hardest to execute what he was taught.Today any vehicle can be finely tuned with a performance chip, module or programmer. “It's only you and your navigator, so if you don't know how to fix something, you're going to be stuck for a while. “The mechanical knowledge is a huge advantage,” he said. A crash at a race in Siberia essentially tore off the front of the car, so he and Gugelmin spent hours fixing one of the corners, finishing the stage on three wheels. If there's a crash or a broken part, the two-person teams have to improvise and fix the car on the spot or wait hours for race officials to come by and pick them up.ĪJ got into some tough spots in Morocco and China, had the steering go out during a race in Spain. The Dakar Rally allows communication for emergencies, which no driver ever wants to use. The family trade was a natural fit, though he didn't get directly behind the wheel. Once he finished college, AJ wasn't sure what he wanted to do. His focus was more on soccer, baseball, football and lacrosse, a sport that earned him a scholarship at San Diego State. Jesse is an accomplished driver, with wins in the Baja 500, San Felipe, the Primm 300, the Vegas to Reno race and a SCORE trophy truck championship.ĪJ had little interest in his father's profession when he was younger, attending a handful of races. Though a relative newcomer to the racing, Jones has been around it all his life. ![]() “At the same time you’re reading the terrain, looking for things that are going to end your day, if you will.” “The hardest part is the mental part, being able to stay focused all the time and listen to the calls to the co-driver,” said Jones' father, Jesse. ![]() Jones' resume also includes wins at the Baja 1000 (twice), Baja 500, the San Felipe 250, a World Rally Raid T4 Championship, a SCORE championship and rallies in Andalusia, Kazakhstan and Abu Dhabi. He's the youngest driver and first American to win Dakar twice. ![]() The 27-year-old claimed the T4 class (production models) Dakar Rally title in 2022 with Brazilian co-driver Gustavo Gugelmin and followed it up with a win in the T3 class (prototype models) earlier this year. Jones followed the footsteps of his father, Jesse, an accomplished rally car racer after playing lacrosse on scholarship at San Diego State. It's as much an endurance test as a race, drivers and their navigators covering roughly 8,000 miles through the unforgiving landscape of the Arabian Desert over 10 to 15 days.ĪJ Jones, the youngest driver and only American to win the Dakar Rally twice, poses on Nov. Originally a circuit from Paris to Dakar, Senegal, the race has been run across Saudi Arabia since 2020. The Dakar Rally is arguably the most diabolical race on earth. You have to be 100% focused and that’s probably the hardest part.” "That’s the thing with racing, especially rally racing: you lose focus for one second and that could be the difference of you ending up on your roof in a ditch or making that turn and going on to the next one,” said Jones, who goes by “AJ” to friends and family.
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